Delhi High Court Restrains Okaya Dealers From Circulating Defamatory Ads Against Microtek Trademarks

The Delhi High Court on 10 June granted an interim injunction and restrained several Okaya dealers and employees from circulating disparaging and defamatory advertisements against the registered trademarks of Microtek International Private Limited.

Justice Neena Bansal Krishna heard the matter and restrained Defendants 1 to 6, including authorised dealers, distributors and branch personnel of Okaya operating across Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and other States, from displaying or circulating the impugned advertisements on WhatsApp and Facebook.

The Bench directed them to “remove/take down any of this advertisement within 24 hours.”

Microtek International Private Limited alleged that the defendants misused a previous court order passed in a separate design suit involving different parties and used it to run a campaign making grossly false claims. It specifically contended that the advertisements wrongly stated that 10,000 Microtek batteries stood seized under a court order, whereas authorities actually seized around 1,200 batteries of multiple brands.

The company further argued that the advertisements falsely portrayed its batteries as inferior in quality and wrongly suggested that Microtek formed a party to the underlying design litigation, despite not being involved in that case. Further that Defendant No. 11 misused a separate design infringement order to launch a defamatory campaign targeting Microtek's registered trademarks.

Counsel appearing for several defendants, including former Microtek directors now associated with Okaya entities, appeared on advance notice and denied involvement in creating or circulating the advertisements. They stated that employees who forwarded the content as display status had already been reprimanded. They also undertook before the Court not to publish or circulate any misleading or factually incorrect advertisements in the future.

The Court directed Defendants 1 to 6, including authorised dealers, branch heads and distributors, to remove and take down the impugned advertisements within 24 hours and ordered issuance of notice to them. It listed the matter before the Joint Registrar on 16 July 2026 and directed Defendants 7 to 11 to file written statements within 30 days.